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Queen’s Park faces legislative gridlock as it resumes sitting

Government House leader John Milloy hopes legislative progress can be made this fall despite the Liberals' minority status and continuing fallout over the controversial gas plant cancellations. (ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

The latest wrinkle in the procedural wrangling over the saga is yet another contempt of parliament motion by the Progressive Conservatives aimed at embarrassing Premier Kathleen Wynne’s minority Grits, who are accused of axing the two plants so as to save Liberal seats in the looming election.

With incoming Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk promising to release a new costing of the Oakville gas plant cancellation “early this fall,” the controversy that drove former premier Dalton McGuinty into retirement is expected to flare up once again.

Still, Government House Leader John Milloy insists business can be accomplished despite a backlog of 14 bills introduced since Wynne became premier in February, such as reforming the troubled ORNGE air ambulance service and making cellphone contracts more consumer-friendly.

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“I’m always an optimist and all of the political events over the summer — the byelections, everything — it just reinforces that message that we’re (in) a minority situation, we’ve all got to work together,” said Milloy, referring to the Liberals and NDP each winning two byelections and the Tories winning one last month.

“That’s the mandate we’ve been given. We’re going to come out of the gates very strong,” he said.

To that end, the first legislation being introduced will formalize the office of the new financial accountability officer, promised as part of the NDP’s deal to back the Liberal budget last spring — the only major bill passed this year.

The government will also move soon to enact a ban on youth tanning beds since both the NDP and Tories have indicated a willingness to co-operate.

“Let’s not have some of the stalling that we’ve seen,” urged Milloy, suggesting he wants to meet the opposition halfway to avert contempt of parliament charges.

“We want to be reasonable on this. We continue to talk to the (PC and NDP House leaders) on where we go on this,” he said.

“There’s an election that’s going to come at some point, but we’ve got to put that a little bit on the back burner and there can be some win-wins and … I’m hoping that message is getting through,”

Last month, Wynne emphasized she wasn’t going to thrust Ontario into a provincial election if the legislature is in gridlock over the contempt of parliament machinations.

“I’m not in any way planning for a fall election. The people of Ontario expect us ... to get work done,” she said Aug. 14.

New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said she plans to hold the government’s feet to the fire when it comes to implementing budget promises, such as lower auto insurance rates and the new financial accountability office, which she hopes will help “prevent spending scandals before they happen.”

“Ontarians want to see results, not politics and positioning,” Horwath told a news conference Friday. “We’re ready to get back to work.”

Unlike McGuinty, the new premier is unlikely to prorogue the house to alleviate the legislative rancour.

But Tory House Leader Jim Wilson remains wary and suspects Wynne, who announced her new campaign team Friday, might be positioning her party for a snap fall election two years after the Oct. 6, 2011 vote.

“Their political plan was and probably is if they want to go (to an election) in October or November is to say the legislature is in complete paralysis,” said Wilson.

He will introduce a second contempt of legislature motion after question period on Monday — this one regarding a ban on certain questions in a legislative committee investigating the gas plants scandal.

Opposition MPPs want to put Liberal operatives in the witness chair to ask them about Liberal attempts to “bully” Speaker Dave Levac into reversing a ruling last September that the government was in contempt for failing to release documents on the power plants.

“It’s a very important matter, the intent to intimidate the speaker, and we can’t ask questions about it,” Wilson said, calling his contempt bid “excitement-plus in the parliamentary world.”

Committee chair Shafiq Qaadri, a Liberal MPP, ruled that questions about emails from senior Liberals were outside the committee’s jurisdiction. Opposition MPPs are seeking a wider scope to get around that.

In the emails, former top McGuinty staffer Laura Miller said colleague Dave Gene “is putting the member from Brant (Speaker Dave Levac) on notice we need better here.” Ex-Liberal campaign director Don Guy wrote: “Speaker needs to follow up on his prima facie finding and change his mind.”

Miller and Guy have since testified before the committee that they wanted the ruling reversed over fears it could lead to an election. They said no threats were made against Levac, who did not change his decision.

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